Suzy Sharland was an ONL and linguist who studied French and German at the University of Bristol. Her family has created the Suzy Sharland Travel Bursary of £500 in her honour and to support Year 12 linguists on their travels. Here, the latest recipient of the bursary, Jemima, tells us about her wonderful experiences.

As I take both Spanish HL and Italian HL for the IB, I really wanted to improve my skills in the speaking part of the language. As a result, I decided around January last year that I wanted to spend the summer in Italy and Spain in order to improve my skills. Therefore, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to write an essay on Italian culture and the possibility of being able to explore the culture further by travelling there with the prize money. 

First, to improve my Spanish skills, I attended a language school in Madrid for two weeks, staying on my own in a student accommodation, whilst exploring monuments and museums such as el Museo Nacional del Prado, and seeing ‘Guernica’ in el Museo Reina Sofía. 

In Italy, I worked as an au pair with an Italian family from Bologna for a month, before travelling to Abruzzo where I used the money to stay by myself, using the language skills that I had gained from the previous month. It really was fascinating to be able to be completely immersed in both the Spanish and the Italian language and cultures, and I am grateful that this money allowed me to become independent and gave me the confidence to travel by myself in the future. 

Of course, although I only mentioned that this money was used in Italy, it was of course helpful throughout my time in Spain and Italy, allowing me to fully focus on learning the languages and appreciate the two beautiful cultures.